Everyone was absurdly friendly today. I mean, it was really weird. First off, some woman in my building started talking to me and we had a conversation in the lobby. This is just not normal, because usually the people in my building ignore each other, and well, just run away (ack! foreigner!) when they see me. And not only did she say hello, but there was a conversation! And it lasted several minutes.
Then as I walked to the station people not only smiled at me, but said good morning! This is a miracle. People in Tokyo look at the sidewalk. I thought there was a rule here along the lines of: whatever you do, don't make eye contact with people you don't know... and forget about smiling at them. So right about this time, I started checking myself - ok, fly is done up, nothing is smeared on my face, appear to be dressed normally. Ummmm what's going on?
Finally, as I was walking to my class in Shinjuku, some man came up and asked me the time - as a clear attempt to start a conversation with me (he didn't care what time it was). So we gabbed for about 10 minutes. I haven't had a stranger come up and talk to me in a long time. As long as I'm not in a hurry I don't mind - I enjoy talking to people and meeting Japanese... and I know it takes a huge amount of courage to come up and say hello to a foreigner. So that was cool because the guy was really friendly and nice.
So all of this friendliness has me a bit freaked out, but overall, it is really nice! That's one of the things that I miss about Canada - saying good morning to people. It really does make such a difference in your day.
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